Comparison

Wafer vs Forma3D

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Wafer

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Drawing Tools: - Brushes with full pressure and tilt support - Lasso clips, gradients, wet painting and blur - Stencils, decals and stamps - Custom brush tip shapes and alphas Layers: - Full layer system with canvas and procedural fills. - Paint on layer masks for multi-layer painting and non-destructive workflows. - Color blend modes and opacity controls. Painting System: - Paint on the 3D mesh or the 2D UV view - 3D brush falloff with no seam artifacts - 3D and 2D symmetry with configurable pivots - Configurable unlit, shaded and PBR viewport rendering. Multichannel Painting: - Paint color, roughness, metallic at the same time with any tool. - Standard PBR channels or custom shader domain inputs per layer - Apply complete materials with masks and fill layers Performance: - Brush speed stays the same regardless of texture resolution or layer count - Texture resolution and layer count only limited by device memory. - Supports 16K textures on any compatible iPad, to 24K on iPad Pro 3rd gen 2018. - Energy efficient for long painting sessions Scene and Exporting: - Multiple meshes and texture sets per document. - Configurable exporter to pack channels into any texture setup - Configurable over resolution, format, texture content and packing. Extras - Built-in image reference board - Influence system to control tool effect by normals, topology, UV islands or custom maps - Asset library with stencils, triplanar projections, brush alphas and decals

About

Forma3D

Create, edit, and repair 3D models directly on your iPhone or iPad. Features include sculpting, sketching, painting, and splitting meshes for printing. Supports a wide range of import/export formats and offline use.

Highlights
  • Sculpting with gesture-based brushes
  • Sketching and SVG import to 3D
  • Per-face color painting for 3MF export
  • Lithophane generator from photos
  • Splitting meshes with integrated joints
  • Extensive mesh editing tools
  • 3D scanning with LiDAR
Features
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Forma3D is a professional 3D mesh editor for iPhone and iPad — built for makers, 3D printing enthusiasts, and anyone who needs to create, fix, or modify 3D models on the go. No laptop. No cloud. Everything runs locally on your device, offline, with desktop-grade mesh editing. ▸ PAINT & MULTI-FILAMENT 3MF EXPORT Paint with a brush directly on your model, then export a 3MF file with per-face color data ready for multi-filament printing. Bambu Studio and Creality Print read the embedded colors automatically — your paint job travels to the slicer intact. ▸ SCULPT MODE Sculpt meshes with a gesture-based brush — push, pull, and smooth with falloff presets and Apple Pencil support. ▸ SKETCH MODE Draw a shape or import an SVG and turn it into 3D geometry in one tap. ▸ LITHOPHANE GENERATOR Turn any photo into a printable lithophane — a depth-mapped relief that comes alive when backlit. ▸ SPLIT WITH JOINTS Split meshes along edge loops into printable parts with built-in joints — cylinder, square peg, cone, or ball. Perfect for models bigger than your build plate. ▸ EDGE LOOP TOOLS Select entire edge loops and fill them with clean topology: Grid Fill for quad surfaces, Bridge for connecting boundaries. ▸ MESH EDITING AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Switch between Object Mode and Edit Mode. Select and edit vertices, edges, and faces with Single, Rectangle, Oval, or Brush selection. Move, rotate, and scale with a transform gizmo or numeric input. ▸ PROFESSIONAL MODELING TOOLS • Extrude — live preview with direction toggle • Inset — adjustable depth • Bevel — custom segments and profile control • Boolean — Union and Subtract (Manifold CSG) • Cut — Line, Circle, Ellipse, Rectangle, Polygon, Freehand • Mirror — across X, Y, or Z • Revolve — lathe geometry from a profile • Subdivide / Simplify — resolution where you need it • Remesh — uniform quad topology with quality control • 3D Text — extruded text objects ▸ PRIMITIVES & FILE FORMATS Cube, Sphere, Soft variants, Cylinder, Torus, Pyramid, Plane, Tube, Bolt, Nut. Import STL, 3MF, OBJ, PLY, DAE, ABC, USD, FBX and GLB — plus native Blender .blend scenes with mirror modifiers and object transforms applied. Export to STL, 3MF (Bambu-ready), OBJ, FBX, GLB or USDZ — with colors. ▸ 3D SCANNING (LiDAR) Scan real objects and edit the mesh immediately — scan, fix, print without switching apps. ▸ PRECISION & MEASUREMENT Ruler in millimeters, 20 mm build-plate grid, snap-to-grid, keyboard numeric input. ▸ VISUALIZATION Orthographic view cube, X-Ray mode, wireframe (triangles/quads), custom lighting and viewport colors. ▸ UNDO / REDO & PROJECTS Full history, native .forma3d projects, objects list panel. ▸ APPLE PENCIL Hover tooltips and precise component editing optimized for Pencil. ▸ 21 LANGUAGES English, Deutsch, Français, 日本語, 简体中文, 繁體中文, Español, Italiano, 한국어, Português, Русский, Українська, Nederlands, Polski, Türkçe, Svenska, العربية, हिन्दी, ไทย, Tiếng Việt, Bahasa Indonesia.

Screenshots

Forma3D4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Forma3D at 4.4 against Wafer's 3.9. Forma3D also leads on review sentiment (83% vs 57%) and chart position (#196 vs unranked). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Wafer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Forma3D sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Forma3D holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 17 and 7 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 57% of Wafer's written reviews are positive against 83% of Forma3D's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Wafer ships an update every 5 days, Forma3D every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Wafer versus Forma3D: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWaferForma3D
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.9 (17 ratings)4.4 (7 ratings) — better
Positive reviews57.1% of reviews83.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings17 — better7
Update frequencyEvery 5 daysEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#196 — better
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS16.6 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size52 MB36 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSparseal SLDenis Vazyulya

Customer experience

Wafer

All ratings17 ratings
Positive76.5%
Neutral5.9%
Negative17.6%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive57.1%
Neutral14.3%
Negative28.6%

Forma3D

All ratings7 ratings
Positive85.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative14.3%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative16.7%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Wafer

One-time1
  • Exporting and Saving Documents$19.99
3 purchases

Forma3D

Subscriptions2
  • Forma3D subscription3 Days trial$6.991 Month
  • Forma3D - Year3 Days trial$49.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime access to Forma3D$99.99

Questions

Is Wafer free?
Wafer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Forma3D free?
Forma3D is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Wafer or Forma3D?
Forma3D is rated higher. Wafer averages 3.9 out of 5 from 17 ratings, while Forma3D averages 4.4 from 7 ratings.
Do Wafer or Forma3D have ads?
Neither Wafer nor Forma3D shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Wafer or Forma3D?
Wafer ships an update every 5 days, and Forma3D every 3 days. Most recently, Wafer was updated on November 5, 2026 and Forma3D on November 7, 2026.

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